The Experience of Muslim Prayer: A Phenomenological Investigation

• Published in: Pastoral psychology Vol. 67; no. 5; pp. 547 - 562
• Main Author: Williamson, W. Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-10-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Christianity; Clinical Psychology; Cross Cultural Psychology; Islam; Meaning; Muslims; Phenomenological research; Prayer; Psychology; Qualitative research; Religion & psychology; Religious Studies; Religious traditions; Sociology; Spirituality; Phenomenology; Religious practices; Islam; Prayer; Muslim prayer
• ISSN: 0031-2789; 1573-6679
• DOI: 10.1007/s11089-018-0831-3

Some form of prayer is a central feature of virtually all religious traditions. In Christianity, this practice has been studied periodically by social scientists over decades, although it has received only recent attention in Islam. Among these few prayer studies, none has focused on the awareness of experience in Muslim prayer from a first-person perspective, which is the aim of this study. This investigation conducted phenomenological interviews with seven Muslims of five different cultures to obtain detailed descriptions of their prayer experiences. A hermeneutic-thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews found a pattern of four themes that emerged across all protocols to collectively describe the meaning of the experience of prayer for participants: (1) No Connection/Connection; (2) Particular Feelings; (3) Spiritual Change; (4) and Certain Knowledge. These findings are discussed in relation to the existential grounds of Body, Others, and Time, as well as current empirical literature on Muslim prayer.